In this 1996 Pepsi commercial, a teenager shows off the cool stuff he got from Pepsi Points. He has a Pepsi T-shirt, which was 75 points. He has a leather jacket, which was 1450 Pepsi Points. Shades were 175 points. And then, he rolls up to school in a Harrier Jet…7,000,000 Pepsi Points. This one is best remembered because a business student found a loophole and ended up suing Pepsi for his Harrier Jet. Spoiler alert: he lost. Though Pepsi did end up changing the commercial to 700,000,000 points for the jet.

Like this:

I remember the “Jake from State Farm” commercial debuting in 2011, around the same time I started this blog. I wrote about it, but didn’t realize that it would become such a huge hit…an ad that would be aired for years. But looking back, it’s still hilarious. I’ve even seen people dress up for Halloween as Jake from State Farm. I guess that’s a convenient costume if you’re somewhat lazy and own a red polo and khakis. Jake Stone was a real-life State Farm agent, and according to this article, he quit shortly after the ad was released. I still wonder how many people call their State Farm agents at 3 AM. Justin Campbell plays the husband, and Melanie Paxson is the wife.

This past weekend, I went to a wedding where the couple used Haley Reinhart’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as their first dance song. The song came to prominence from its usage in Extra Gum’s mega-viral 2015 spot “The Story of Sarah & Juan.” It was a romantic tearjerker that was also interesting in the fact that it told a story not even about the product, but a creative use of the packaging. So let’s take a look back at this lovely ad from Extra.

Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy today. Reading that news made me think of a particular song that was common during my childhood. This Toys “R” Us ad from 1982 features among others a pre-Urkel Jaleel White. And the followup has those same actors (minus Jaleel White) 14 years later.

This Lincoln MKZ commercial is from 2009, and it’s one that I kinda wish had come out when I had this blog, because it would have gotten a ton of pageviews. In a lot of ways, Lincoln’s commercial looks like a stereotypical car ad, with the sleek visuals and cool song. But damn, it looks and sounds fantastic. That song is “Major Tom” by Shiny Toy Guns (a cover of the original by Peter Schilling). Love it.

A lot of these Tuesday Throwback posts come from hearing a song that triggers a commercial memory. Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” is an absolutely beautiful song. This 2009 Chase Sapphire commercial evokes some of the class of that tune by showing a kinda wealthy looking married couple, with the man explaining that they can use their Chase Sapphire points to “take a break.” Two problems with this spot though: first, the dialogue sounds too much like an ad, and not how regular people would talk. Second, the revelation that the wife used their points on a dress, albeit a rather attractive one, is pretty obnoxious. The husband is played by David Starzyk, and the wife is Molly Culver. Here’s the dress commercial, and a few more featuring the same couple from this campaign.

I randomly heard Telepopmusik’s gorgeously chill song “Breathe” today, and that brought me back to 2003 and this lovely commercial for the Mitsubishi Outlander. The song’s success was buoyed by this ad, and it became a minor hit on the US charts, reaching #78 on the Hot 100, as well as receiving a Grammy nomination. Enjoy!